This post is about the beautiful onion scapes growing in my garden.
Enjoy the photos.
A few of the potatoes, there are red, yellow fingerlings and Peruvian blue growing.
I harvested a few potatoes two weeks ago and was quite proud of my potatoes!
Somewhere, I read that they are supposed to dry a couple of weeks before you eat them so I put them in a bag and let them be until last night.
Look at the inside!
Scrubbed potatoes were cut and placed into a pot with cold water and put over high heat. Once the water boiled, salt and herbs were added to water to steep flavor into the potatoes as they cooked.
Boil until the potatoes are done, drain and season with snipped chives and a small dab of butter or olive oil if you like.
YUM!
The Peruvian Blue Plant
The flower
So far, it has been quite fun to grow the potatoes. The Peruvian Blue potato plants are actually quite lovely. I’ve kept adding more soil to mimic “hilling” and hopefully, this will result in decent results meaning actually having some potatoes.
I showed the first harvest to Robert he said “looks like its going to be a long winter.” I do hope there are more potatoes to find when it is time! It’s like finding buried treasure when it comes time to dig them out of the ground.
I grew the Peruvian Blue in a 55 gallon purple Rubbermaid bin that I drilled drainage holes in the bottom to drain excess water.
Someone told me that the bags rotted, a pot would have to be quite large so since I had a bunch of bins, one became the container to grow Peruvian Blue Potatoes.
Someone else told me of a large garbage can with a door cut into the side so you could open the door, reach in and harvest a dinners worth of potatoes, close the door and the plant carries on.
How cool is that idea?!
I’d have to think of how to build something though as I’m not to sure everyone would agree on a garbage can with a door cut into the side, growing a potato plant as part of the landscaping.
Now if I lived on a farm . . .
My tomatoes are pitiful. Blossom drop plague. But at least we have a few potatoes.
Mint Leaves (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Mint leaves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Oh my! The mint in my garden has taken off! If you have an overgrowth of mint here are a few ideas on how to put the mint to good use.
A scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip, Baskin-Robbin’s most popular flavor. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
These take more patience than I have, surely you have more than I do and therefore are able to make en entire tree of chocolate mint leaves.
Personally I don’t care for working with chocolate. I find it far more messy than worth it. I’ll gladly pay for fine chocolates which are also far better than I would have the patience to make. Temper chocolate? Meh, I’d rather not.
English: Too young for mint sauce A very young lamb in the wildflower meadow beside the church of St George. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Make mint sauce for lamb! Not mint jelly. Although that would be good too, but the vinegar, sweet mint sauce like Crosse and Blackwell make. I love this sauce on so many things – lamb, shrimp, pork . . .
Mint jelly (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Make Apple Mint Jelly. Put that on a biscuit with some butter. Slap on a bit of salty ham, maybe some brie and chow down!
Ah, an over growth of Mint can be heavenly!
This is my interpretation of “eating local“:
Local Fare
The multi-grain bread was made by me and cooked on the grill. The sourdough culture I use is nearly 2 years old and came to me from a friend.
I grew the lettuce.
I made the goat cheese from milk from local goats. I could find out the names of the goats if I wanted. I buy the milk from our organic farmers market who bring it in fresh. Low-temp pasteurized, yeah buddy!
The tomato is from a farm just down the road whose family has been growing vegetables and operating a working farm on the land since 1775. These tomatoes are the first to ripen with any flavor, just perfect for the goat cheese!
So there you have it. Local food for lunch.
I got a letter in the mail yesterday that let me know that it is time for a change. Two weeks ago I had a physical which also included doing a blood profile.
I have always taken great pride in knowing I followed my fathers genes for height, weight and cholesterol until yesterday. My mother has very high cholesterol which she is managing well; she and Dad are in their 80’s and are doing well.
For many years all of my lab reports were great. Now, this report comes back with a spike in my LDL cholesterol (the bad one) into a danger zone of 160 (it should be below 100). “Let’s talk about some medications” my Dr. suggests.
I suggest drugs! (Photo credit: the|G|™)
Guess the butter has caught up to me. And the lamb, fried chicken, bacon and pastries. If you realistically look at it and ask
“Just how many Bacon Topped, Maple Glazed yeast doughnuts can one eat before you have to pay the price?” you would know the answer.
Darn, because that sure does sound amazing, is it the bacon part? Or the maple glaze part? Or the raised glazed part? Can’t we just forget about health this one time?
Well the real question that has come home to roost is how many times can you say “yes, just this time.”
How many times can you rationalize in your mind that it is “OK” to slather bread with butter, or load up that baked potato with sour cream and cheese on top of that butter or dip that fried chicken finger into ranch dressing.
a baked potato with butter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How many times can we continue to look away?
No more, according to that letter.
Now, either I get to show and do what I know is right nutritionally or I can get on that AMA medicated bandwagon for the rest of my life. At 57 years old, I hope to have a lot of life ahead and have no desire to do so medicated or dependent on some doctors opinion.
I talked myself out of walking today because it was “cold”. 53°F “cold”.
Ha.
I scolded myself for not going. I didn’t go because I was lazy. Although I can come up with several excuses that all sound so much better than lazy, lazy is the truth. Lazy is a choice and lazy is something I can do something about.
Avoiding cardiovascular disease needs exercise, so I’d better get over this lazy spell.
While I don’t have a cardiovascular diagnosis, its numbers like these that lead to it unless something is done. Here lies my choice.
The amazing thing is that I really truly do know better! I am better educated about diet, health and food than most and yet I still find myself eating bacon, sugar and butter as if I were immune to the effects.
Today, I made some multi-grain bread and crackers with organic flour and whole grains, made hummus without oil, thanks to the vita-mix. Gosh, it had such a bright flavor! These are some of our go to snacks and lunch stuff for the next week.
I looked in the fridge and noticed some things that need to go.
Cholesterol is Good for You! (Photo credit: Mr Jaded)[This is NOT really in my fridge! But wouldn’t it be nice if it were just this easy to eliminate cholesterol?]
I asked myself today, “what do I want to accomplish by eating this?” and threw some junky food away rather than down my throat.
So some changes are in order.
While I’m not going to say I’ll never eat butter again or bacon or brie cheese, I can’t make them part of a normal diet. Maybe once a year or never for that doughnut.
My immediate goals are to change the amount of fat, increase vegetables and fiber, balance lean meats and breads.
I make all of our bread, I know what is in it, I’m not real keen on giving that up any time soon. Not being gluten intolerant or sensitive to it gives me a choice to eat my lovely breads or not.
I like meat, I really like the flavor. I was a vegan vegetarian for about 3 years when I was in my early 20’s. I determined then I really liked the flavor of meat. Being aware of how much meat and what kind of meat we eat is a key to control.
We don’t eat processed foods or fast foods and limit sugar and salt intake. We eat a variety of grains because we actually like them so some of the diet modifications should be rather simple to accomplish.
It’s the butter and pastries that need to go away. I know that and I don’t need a doctor to put me on meds in order to get the LDL under control.
I have been teaching bakeshop classes since January, I am 100% positive that change in schedule is a definite contributor to the spike in LDL. Next week when my new classes begin, I’m out of bakeshop and into Global Cuisine and so all those pastries and temptations will be well out of reach.
Additionally I need to get moving. Go walking. Anywhere.
Hopefully I can work up to a light run and learn to enjoy the process and shake these lazy bones.
In My Kitchen this month are many things.
Freshly made croissants
Croissants, Hamentashen, Almond Cakes, so much to give away!
My hairdresser got the croissants (some had lovely chocolate in them),
Hamentashen went to many Jewish friends, 
Almond cakes went with the TV crew and one got scarfed by us smothered in lovely berries and vanilla yogurt.
There is a Peruvian Blue potato that has sprouted so I decided to try to grow it. So far, there are at least three areas
Sprouting Blue
“rooting”. I think these may get grown in a bag, if I can find one, to help with harvesting later.
There is a Vita-Mix in my kitchen this month, to “play with” for school. Also included is the large Whole Foods Cookbook they produce for using the Vita-Mix.
My assignment is to come up with something to use it for next semester when my class is “Global Cuisine”. One thing I have learned is that I really like my food with texture, and I like to chew my food rather than drink it.
Visiting Vita-mix
I made a wonderful tasting marinade – Citrus Ginger Marinade – that we really liked the flavor but not the emulsified texture of the marinade,sauce or dressing it could be used as. I’ll play with it for a little while longer to see what else it can do, but so far, while I like a powerful blender, it isn’t something I’d really use that often. Smoothies aren’t really my thing, eventually pureed soups need something more interesting than a smooth texture. My opinion, you may love your Vita-Mix! If so, please comment on how you use it!
Perennial herbs are beginning to show signs of growth as winter wanes.
Emerging Garlic Chives
We only had one good afternoon of snow last Saturday and it was all gone on Sunday. But, the tarragon, chives and rosemary are all showing signs of Spring.
I love eating Rosemary flowers! Right now the plant is bursting with the pale purple flowers.
Rosemary Flowers
Sage flowers are next and then chive flowers. Gather a bunch of them from your herb garden and pop them onto vegetables, salads or garnish almost any dish with them. The flavors are amazing, be sure to linger over it, notice it and enjoy.
Shout out to Celia over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for hosting the monthly In My Kitchen Posts!
There are many more things simmering away in my kitchen so I’d better grab my camera and get busy documenting.
March 2 and it has been snowing all morning. 2 weeks ago we had “thunder snow”. Local weather lore says if you have thunder snow, you will have another snow 10 days to 2 weeks later.
We had thunder snow 2 weeks ago and this morning we have lovely big fluffy flakes that have been falling all morning. The ground is far too warm for anything to stick so it is really nice to watch.
Butternut Squash Soup and Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwiches for lunch.
Spring is near!
And that is what is happening in my kitchen this month.
I missed out on last months post, mainly because I ran out of time and the other was due to being “suspended “ on WordPress. (Yeah, I’m such a bad girl!)
This In My Kitchen posting neatly summarizes what has been happening in my kitchen over the last month.
At Soup in Sunday I bought another bowl, for condiments this time.
The new bowl
There has been lots of information going around on how to grow things from kitchen scraps. I love scallions and have a hard time getting them to grow. My dad on the other hand gets things to grow for him just by thinking about it.
“Hydroponic” Scallions; They will need dirt soon!
So scallions are now growing in vases for easy clipping and almost instant regrowth. They will need soil soon, I’m sure
In my kitchen this month are these lovely measuring cups.
Hedge Hog measuring cups
You can use them as scoops too
How cute are these? They were a Christmas gift from Robert’s daughter Kim. Aren’t they adorable!
I started taking a class (just because) on Nutritional Concepts and Medical Nutritional Therapy so the awareness of what we eat has been in the spotlight. Eating/using a lot of butter (I love butter!) is one thing that has changed. I used to keep at least 5# of butter on hand for baking but now, I hardly have any. If I want to bake, a to run to the store would be required. This step alone has really put a damper on the treats available in my kitchen.
So now baking sweet treats involves some actual thinking about it rather than just jumping in and baking my heart out.
I am teaching a baking class this semester so the advantage of this is I get to play with tons of dough and make all kinds of things all day long. When I come home, the treats aren’t staring me in the face demanding “eat me!”
However, Celia’s Chocolate Nutella frogs had me locating the jar of Nutella and slathering it on to a Trisket and topping that with a few pistachios. Thankfully there are no incriminating photographs!
In my kitchen this month is a new (to me) book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice authored by Peter Reinhardt.
I find it fascinating. Additionally, I bought a couche for when I make bread. the need has been there for a while, I’m just getting around to buying one.
Bread Baker’s Apprentice and floured couche
One of our friends is a friend of Peters. I am hoping to get the book signed one day.
In my kitchen are some great new lenses for the i phone!
i Phone lenses
There are three of them, wide-angle, fish eye and macro lenses. I am really looking forward to having the time to really learn how to use them effectively.
I’ll do a post on the shots the camera makes with the different lenses.
Here is a shot using the macro lens
Using the i phone macro lens
So, now it is time to go make bread for the week. Celia’s pain-viennois and Richard Bertinet’s method of kneading the sticky dough mass until smooth and elastic seems just like the therapy I need today.
I’ll make some with chocolate!
Gratitude goes out to Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for hosting this fun series of peeking into one another’s kitchens each month.
Promise, I’ll get back on track and not be so late submitting next month.
Pain Chocolate
It’s time again for another Soup on Sunday! Held the last Sunday of January, risking the wrath of possible inclement weather, Soup on Sunday has always been held on time and on date, except 1 year about 2 years ago. The community really supports this event.
Who wouldn’t like a lot of amazing soup on a cold winter day?
Yummy Soup!
Our culinary department hosts this event every year to benefit local Hospice. Typically we get more and more each year, both people attending and money raised.
Area restaurants bring 5 gallons of a signature soup to promote their restaurant.
Warming Soup
To round out the plethora of soups, Great Harvest Bread Company brings an amazing variety of fresh bread, the area culinary schools, Johnson and Wales, Art Institute and CPCC, do both soups and table-breaking loads of desserts, chocolates and cookies.
How it works:
Buy a ticket: $30 gets you in to taste everything available; A $40.00 dollar ticket allows you to pick a bowl valued at $10.00 from the pottery room.
Once you get in, you can eat as much of anything you want. The soup is served up in small bowls so you can TRY to have a bite of every one. With about 35 restaurants participating, if you only ate the soup and ate every one, you’d consume over 1/2 gallon of soup! And that does not include the pizza,
Pizza!
Pizza lining up for the oven
The Wood Stone Pizza Oven. Students have a blast using it!
or cookies or ah-hem the Chocolate Soup.
Chocolate Soup!
Not many people realize how important the dishwashers are to an event. These Johnson and Wales students volunteered their time and talent to the event and took charge of the dish pit. Thank You!
Awesome Dishwashers!
After the final numbers were tallied, over 770 people came by to support Hospice. The event is the major fundraiser for them and we are all so glad to be able to host and facilitate the event. Everyone gets involved and gives back.
Soup Bowls for sale
Area clay artists donate pottery bowls for sale starting at generally $10.00 and up. The quality ranges from really talented to rudimentary primitive ( typically done by kids), which can work, depending upon the decor of the area you are decorating. Each year, I buy at least 1 bowl, sometimes 3-4. We enjoy using them throughout the year. Last year I bought beautiful footed deep soup bowls, in previous years I bought fruit bowls and rice bowls. This years bowl is a condiment bowl, small and lovely; it is the bottom on in the photo below.
I bought the one in the bottom of the photo
This is my 6th Soup on Sunday and now I have 6 hand-made pottery bowls that we use and enjoy all the time.
Please enjoy the following photos of Soup on Sunday, 2013!
Great Harvest Bread Ladies – Loretta and Robin – Former students!
Each basket of spoons marks a spot for a different restaurant
They can decorate their 3′ table space
any way they want, tablecloths, flowers etc.
Over 770 people came this year!
Sorting supplies for each station
Serving soup, they stay busy with those 2 oz ladles!
Pouring Soup instead of using the ladle.
“Never trust a skinny chef!” is how the old saying goes. But let’s examine that adage and explore the rearrangement of a common cliché.
As we become more aware of our diets, the effects food has on our bodies and how it makes us feel, there needs to be a basis of trust between the cook and the consumer.
English: White House chefs, directed by Executive Chef Henry Haller, prepare for a state dinner honoring Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. The chefs are working in the White House kitchen; the dinner occured in 1981, during the administration of Ronald Reagan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Take a look at the chef, the person responsible for creating the menu and training the kitchen staff on how to prepare the various dishes.
Since I have worked in kitchens, I know a lot more about how restaurant kitchens run than most. If the person creating my meal is on the heavy side, typically sauces and flavorings would be full of butter, fats, salts and sugars.
“A heavy chef means they enjoy their food, so it must be good!”
Really? How many people who are overweight have a hard time identifying a proper portion size? Someone who struggles with weight will eat for the sake of eating.
Someone who has emotions (hopefully all of us) will eat sometimes for comfort. Think of chicken soup when you’re ill; but when you can’t stop eating weight becomes an issue.
Sometimes the food choices we make are simply because the food we choose is familiar, it is what we know. But what if that food is bad for us? What if people really don’t understand the processed food they are eating is bad?
Evidence the obesity crisis in the USA.
Jamie Oliver is doing an eating awareness program in West Virginia to address the problem of obesity. He goes into an elementary school and the children cannot identify fresh tomatoes on the vine, cauliflower or even potatoes.
The pile of pizza, corn dogs, hot dogs, hamburgers, cakes and ice cream all over the table that represented what the family ate for a week was disturbing. Most disturbing of all is that the mom didn’t know the food was bad for them. They weren’t hungry and she thought that was good.
But she is killing her family. Her 10-year old son is already 350 pounds. Really, “Well we’re not hungry”?!
Shocking. How did it get so far?
I want a chef who is inventive but not at the expense of my health. I want someone preparing my food with the same attitude I have for health.
Obesity is a rampant problem in the USA. Identifying proper nutrients is a major issue. Processed foods, fast foods, restaurant foods loaded with fats, salts and sugars invade the diets of every day eating all around us.
The basic food environment in the USA is severely lacking in good solid nutritious fresh food.
Drive through any town, fast foods for everything from donuts, burgers, sandwiches, Mexican, Chinese, and Italian; fried and fast is what lines the streets. It isn’t easy to choose not to eat fast food, especially when you are hungry, the temptation is great to give in.
There are many of us who are aware of what we eat. Those on gluten-free diets are aware of nearly every product they eat. Thankfully, gluten-free is easier to find these days, but there is still the issue of all that fat, sugar and sodium.
When we eat out, we are at the mercy of the kitchen to actually know how to make food taste good without the added fat, salts and sugar.
Slapping butter, sugar and salt onto food is an easy way to make anything taste good. Cooking like that takes no skill at all.
Using salt is an important seasoning but so many far overdo the salt thing. Adding some salt to cooking water when boiling pasta, rice or potatoes is usually all you need.
I love salt! I adore all the different kinds of salt there are, yet I don’t overdo it either.
I am not looking for a chef who serves me a plate full of sauces and vegetables full of butter. I am looking for foods that are cooked correctly and seasoned to bring out the full of flavors.
People need to learn what a proper portion size looks like. Restaurants serve enough to 1 person to feed three and yet that one person still tries to eat as much as they can because that is what they are served.
Case in point: The Cheesecake Factory (Hint right there) offers a “Crispy Chicken Costoletta” which serve up a whopping 2610 calories, 89 grams of fat and 2720 milligrams of salt. Costolotta alright, cost a lotta health if you eat all that. If you really have to eat that, then break it down into three meals at least. (Nutrition Action Healthletter, January/February 2012) Best of all, choose another place to eat.
Watch buffets; people load up their plates as if they only have one visit. All manner of foods get glopped together on a plate so it becomes a huge pile of goop melange. Why not go get some salad, talk, visit with your dining companions, eat, and return for entrée, then again for dessert. It seems more civil. Why are we rushing? Trying to beat the mental signal you are full?
But instead they try to slip that cherry cobbler right next to the fried chicken and coleslaw that sits on top of the ranch dressing salad with “Country Crocked” yeast rolls underneath.
Then they stuff it all in, make a second trip and wonder why they have bellies the size of VW Bug cars.
Burp.
Talking to Tyler the other day, he mentioned he was having his girlfriend over for dinner and he had to go set the table. I felt good knowing he was carrying on a family value: Setting a table and sitting there to eat dinner and talk to each other about the day.
An attractive dinner setting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Something so small, yet it is so important. Our social and family bonds grow stronger with each meal gathering. Shouldn’t the food put in front of us be nourishing as well?
The movement to better health through eating well begins with each one of us making a choice.
If you don’t know how to cook or how to choose better nutrition, take a class and learn. Get your children involved with preparing meals; they are more likely to try new foods if they have a hand in making the dish.
Step away from the sugar bowl! Put down those sodas and juice boxes. Drink water, teas, non-fat milk. There are even flavored waters with bubbles if you simply must have a fizzy drink.
Try extra-virgin coconut and olive oils instead of butter. Your heart will thank you.
I started taking a Therapeutic Nutrition class a few weeks ago. My eyes have really been opened to how severe the obesity epidemic is and that we CAN do something about it.
That something is education and choice.
I hope you can join me in starting something is your neighborhood. The future depends on our kids, how can they carry on if they aren’t healthy?
Except eggs and milk, of course!
Sorry Jared, Subway needs a better way.
Make a sandwich from home. Learn to cook fresh foods and eliminate processed foods. It may take a while to actually accomplish this, but you will be rewarded with better health and more money in your pocket.
If each of us took one small step towards better eating and nutritious health, we could change a nation. We can start in our own homes.
The power of one can inspire another.
Please note Word Press lifted the suspension on Spoon Feast this morning.
I guess they got upset at the Raw Kale Salad post.
I want to talk about what I went through when I found out Spoon Feast was suspended.
It was quite stressful.
But here I am, back in the saddle again.
Watch for a new post soon!
Thanks to all those who offered support.
Pamela
Spoon Feast 